Here we go again. The start of the new college football and NFL seasons are still a little more than month and a half away, but the rumor mill is operating in midseason form. Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly has been tied to various NFL rumors from time to time, and he is already being asked about the possibility of checking out of South Bend for the opportunity to coach on Sundays. That’s crazy, according to Kelly.
In an interview with Blue and Gold Illustrated, the Rivals affiliate covering Notre Dame, Kelly said he has all the control over his team he wants at Notre Dame, and that would not be possible in the NFL right from the jump.
“I don’t know how to stop that other than to say there’s no other place, first of all, in college that I would want to coach,” Kelly said to Blue and Gold Illustrated..” No. 2, I get to pick the players that play for me, I get to negotiate the contracts. I’ve got the salary cap, I’ve got all that. In the NFL, you don’t get to do any of that. Look what [Philadelphia Eagles head coach] Chip Kelly‘s going through. He tries to control all that and he gets killed for it. I can do all that here at Notre Dame.”
Chip Kelly is the previous head coach of the Oregon Ducks. He left the college game for the Eagles two seasons ago and is preparing for his third season while attempting to mold the roster to his liking. Many of the changes Chip has made in Philadelphia have raised some eyebrows around the city (I can tell you that first hand), leaving some veteran media types to curmudgeonly question Kelly’s ability to manage a roster, while younger fans are embracing a fresh approach to the process.
“Bill Belichick gets control over that but he’s won [four] Super Bowls,” Brian Kelly continued to explain. “I needed to know that to make sure I wanted to do what I was doing. After seeing that and after talking to a number of guys that I know in the NFL, it’s crazy.”
Notre Dame is receiving some high praise from some college football analysts this offseason, with a run to the playoffs being predicted by more than a few. If the Irish manage to reach the four-team playoff field, those rumors about Kelly and the NFL will continue to grow. Then we’ll see just how crazy the talk is.